Singing in the rain ...

Today I've been trying to create rain!!  No, I'm not trying to cool down but trying to create raindrops on a card.  I'm not sure whether I'm happy with the result or whether it really looks like raindrops but it is the best I can do!  The reason for all this creativity ... this week's "Less is More" challenge which is to use a song title to trigger your imagination and the song title is "Singing in the Rain" ... hence the need for raindrops!

I don't have any stamps that immediately fit the theme and my drawing skills (and imagination) are not that great. So I went with the obvious - umbrellas and rain!

Hand drawn water coloured umbrellas

Water coloured raindrops with added musical note topped with glossy accents

I water coloured the umbrellas using distress inks in the colours of the rainbow!

Enjoy!

Finger printing ...

A quick post as it's getting late!

Tonight I gave finger printing another go but instead of creating my own flowers this time I used my finger prints to colour a stamped image - actually I created the finger print first and then stamped the flower image over the top.  This is it:

Apologies for the quality of the photograph

This is the first time that I've hand drawn a border but I felt the design needed something to pull it all together - the additional squiggles are supposed to reflect the detail in the flowers.

I used;
PaperArtsy JOFY Stamp Set 11
Distress Inks - peacock feathers and salty ocean
Versafine Onyx Black ink
and once again my right pointer finger!!

With inky fingers I will enter this into this week's challenge at "Less is More" to adapt a finger print.

Enjoy!

Lilac "Hydrangea" ...

Happy Monday!  It has been a quiet weekend on the creative side but not on the craft buying side!  I've been family visiting in Lincolnshire this weekend which included a trip to Summer Crafting at Doncaster Racecourse - a whole lot of creative goodies all in one place along with hundreds of other crafters!  I managed to buy quite a few goodies which you will see over the next few week.

I spent time on Sunday evening checking out the challenges for the week.  I have to say that the challenge for this week at "Less is More" brought a smile to my face - actually it made me giggle!  As it it the second Saturday of the month it is always a 'One Layer Card' challenge which in my experience involves the odd stray finger print resulting in the need to start again - it is precisely this that made me giggle as the theme for the challenge is to 'Adapt a finger print'!  I spend a great deal of my time trying to keep ink off of my fingers!  

I did have an idea or two but when I checked the early entries most of my ideas were already there, so back to the drawing board!  I decided to go with the floral theme and try an create a Hydrangea.  This is what I came up with:

I'm not happy with the result but I have been determined this year to enter the "Less is More" challenge each week and this week is not going to be the exception!!  I might try again later in the week but I'm not very keen on having inky fingers!

I used:
Distress Inks - Shaded Lilac and Picked Raspberry
Sizzix Circle Framelits
Woodware Sentiment stamp
Pointing finger on my right hand!

Enjoy!

Mixed Media ...

Most of the cards I create are Clean and Simple mainly involving stamping of some sort.  I have, over time, bought lots of "stuff" that I just look at and admire - from designer paper and coloured cardstock, from grunge paste to gelatos .... and the list goes on!  I dream about creating mixed media art but struggle to know where to start!  Tonight I decided to take up the challenge and see if I could create a card using different techniques and materials. 

Shery Russ, owner of STAMPlorations has launched a new challenge blog - The Mixed Media Card Challenge - so this provided me with the motivation to have a go. The challenge is to create a mixed media card with Nature - so here it is:

I seem to have ended up with clean and simple but have used more products to create interest and texture.  I created a stencil using a trellis die and then squidged grunge past through it. Then I die cut some trellis from a piece of card stock that I had previously stencilled using distress inks and water.  I added a strip of card and a piece of ribbon.  I then stamped and watercoloured a beautiful daisy, layered it all together and mounted it on to a 7" by 5" card blank.

I like to enter the Virginia's View Challenge and this month the challenge is to use dies.  I have used a die but it is not the main component so I hope this still meets the criteria.

I used:
STAMPlorations Boxed Blooms stamp set
All Occasions Die - Trellis Trio Part 2
Distress Inks - Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac, Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough and Spun Sugar

Enjoy!

Boxed Bloom too ...

Another quick post for this evening,  I think this stamp set could become another favourite!

This time I've taken the lead from the current sketch challenge at STAMPlorations (with a little bit of tweaking and no sentiment!).

As simple as this card is I cannot tell you how much card I wasted just trying to create it.  I sometimes get an idea in my head and just cannot translate it into real life!

I used:

STAMPlorations Boxed Blooms stamp set
Distress Inks - Mustard seed, Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Mowed lawn
Hessian.

This is the challenge sketch:


Enjoy!

Boxed Bloom ...

It has been a slow week for crafting ... lack of time and lack of inspiration have been a problem. Once again I have resorted to trying out different techniques - some have been successful others not but it has been fun trying them out.

Tonight I have managed to complete another card for the challenge at "Less is More" where we are ask to use Earthtone colours.

I used:

STAMPlorations Boxed Blooms Stamp set
Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Pine Needles, Rusty Hiinge, Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dye
Hessian

Enjoy!

July Birthdays ...

July is a busy month in our family for birthdays (including mine!!) fortunately I have quite a stock of suitable cards to cover most of them for once I have been quite organised.  However, my favourite brother* has a special birthday at the end of this week and it has taken some thinking about to come up with an appropriate card.  Having spent most of the week procrastinating over the design I had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday and this is it:

I used:

Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge, Tea Dye and Spiced Marmalade
Stampin Up - Off the Grid and Gorgeous Grunge.
Scrabble Tiles

This week the "Less is More" challenge is to use Earthtone Colours - as I've used these colours I will enter the challenge.

Enjoy!

* I should come clean - I only have one brother!!